The Mobile Development Choice That Matters
When you commission a mobile app, one of the most consequential technical decisions is the development approach. Build native (separate iOS and Android codebases), use React Native (one codebase, both platforms), or go with a web-based wrapper?
NOTchip's default is React Native. Here's why.
What React Native Actually Is
React Native is a framework developed by Meta that lets you build mobile apps using JavaScript and React. Unlike web wrappers (which render a website inside a shell), React Native compiles to native UI components. Your app uses real iOS and Android components — it just doesn't require you to write them twice.
The result: apps that look and feel native, built at the speed of cross-platform development.
Why NOTchip Chose React Native
One Codebase, Both Platforms
A React Native app shares roughly 80–90% of code between iOS and Android. That's not 80% of the UI — it's 80% of the entire application: business logic, navigation, data fetching, state management, and most screens.
What does that mean for your budget? Instead of paying for two development teams, you pay for one. Instead of maintaining two codebases, you maintain one.
React Expertise Transfers
The React ecosystem is vast. NOTchip builds web applications with Next.js and mobile applications with React Native. The mental models, patterns, and libraries overlap significantly. When a developer is skilled in one, they're productive in the other. That's good for you — your team's knowledge compounds instead of fragmenting.
Performance Is Close Enough — or Better
For the vast majority of applications — social apps, productivity tools, marketplaces, dashboards — React Native performance is indistinguishable from native. The apps ship to the App Store and Play Store as normal apps. Users can't tell the difference.
Faster Iteration
React Native's hot reload and fast refresh mean developers see changes instantly without recompiling the whole app. Combined with Expo's OTA updates, some bug fixes and content updates can reach users without an app store review cycle.
When We Recommend Native Instead
We'll tell you when React Native isn't the right choice:
- High-performance graphics: Apps that need frame-perfect 3D rendering or heavy GPU processing
- Deep platform API access: Apps that need extensive access to platform-specific APIs not yet bridged for React Native
- Very large existing native codebases: When migrating to React Native would cost more than the maintenance savings
What NOTchip Builds with React Native
We've used React Native to build:
- Consumer apps with complex navigation and animations
- B2B productivity tools with offline support
- Apps that integrate with hardware (Bluetooth, camera, GPS)
- Apps with real-time data sync and push notifications
The Bottom Line
For most mobile products, React Native gives you native quality at a fraction of the cost and timeline. That's why NOTchip chose it, and why we'll be honest with you when a project is one of the exceptions.
[Talk to NOTchip about your mobile app project](/) and we'll give you our honest assessment of the right approach.